Hoisting apparatus for blast-furnaces.



PATENTED NOV. 8, 190

H. HEFFRIN.

HOISTING APPARATUS FOR BLAST FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 4, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

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WITNESSES: j E/M 9M UNITED STATES Patented November 8, 1904..

PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY HEFFRIN, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THOMAS H. MARTIN,- TRUSTEE, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

HOISTING APPARATUS FOR BLAST-FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 774,38'7, dated November 8, 1904.

Application filed May 4. 1904. Serial No. 206,396. (No model.)

1'0 (Ml whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY HEFFRIN, a citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered a certain new and useful Improvement in Hoisting Apparatus for Blast-Furnaces, of which improvement the following is a specification.

The invention described herein relates to certain improvements in hoisting mechanism for blast-furnaces. In the operation of such hoisting mechanism it is desirable that the cars should be moved at a high speed during intermediate portions of its travel and that the speed be gradually reduced at or near the .ends of the travel, and, further, it is desirable to provide for a constant speed of movement of the cars regardless of the load in the car.

The attainment of these ends is the object of the invention described herein.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing a blast-furnace and hoist mechanism. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the winding-drum and its operating and controlling mechanism. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the winding-drum, and Fig. 1 is a detail view of the automatic cut-off mechanism for the motor.

In the practice of my invention the car 1 is connected to a rope 2, passing over guide-pulleys 3, 4, and 5 on top of the furnace and connected to a winding-drum 6. As shown in Fig. 2, this drum is constructed with several winding portions varying one from the other in diameter. The portions 7 are made of small diameter, so that when the rope is being Wound on such portionsz'. 6., at the ends of the travel of the carthe movement of the latter will be so slow that the car can be stopped without material shock or jar. The main winding portion 8 is made of such a diameter relative to the speed of the motor that when the rope is being wound on or passing off of such portion the car will have the highest speed. The portions 7 and 8 are connected by spiral winding portions 9, formed on the sides of the drum, so that there will be a gradual change of speed from fast to slow, or the reverse, as the rope is being wound on or off these spiral intermediate or connecting portions. It Will be observed that these changes of speed of the car are effected automatically and without changing the speed of the motor, which-is preferably of the electric type and constructed to have a constant speed under varying conditions of load.

In order to provide for the stopping, an internallythreaded disk 10 is mounted on a threaded shaft 11, operated by the shaft of the winding-drum. The disk is held from rotation with the shaft and Will therefore travel along the same, depending upon the direction of rotation of the shaft. This disk is connected by a pitman 12 to a switch-lever 13, carrying contact-plates 14 and 15, and as it travels in one direction along the shaft 11 a projection 16 on the disk will engagea projection on a disk 17, secured to the shaft, so that the disk 10 will be shifted by disk 17, thereby shifting the switch-lever, so as to move its contact 1 1 from the contacts 18. On a reversal of the threaded shaft the disk 10 will move in the opposite direction along the shaft until its projection 16 will engage a projection on disk 19, secured to shaft 11. By the rotation of disk 19 after its engagement with disk 10 the switch-lever will be shifted, so as to move its contact 15 from the contact 20, again breaking the circuit of the motor. It will be observed that the connection between the pitman 12 and lever 13 is of such construction or character that when the lever has been shifted by the described mechanismas, for example, to the right to mid or neutral position-At cannot be returned, but is free to be moved farther to the right, and thereby start the motor in reverse direction.

It is characteristic of my improvement that the operation of the driving-motor, which may be of any desired type, is checked after a predetermined number of revolutions of the winding-drum, and the motor-controlling mechanism is so constructed that it cannot be again started in the same direction until after a reverse movement has taken place. This result may be conveniently attained by means of a slot 21 on the pitman and a pin 22 on the lever engaging the slot, which is made sufiiciently long to permit the lever being shifted by hand from mid or neutral position to operative position to the right or left.

In order to prevent movement of the Winding-drum after the lever has been shifted to neutral position, I provide a brake mechanism adapted to be brought into operation on the shifting of the lever. In the construction shown this brake mechanism consists of a drum 23 on the shaft of the motor and surrounded by a strap 24, which is caused to grip the drum by any suitable means, as a Weight 25. The strap-tightening device is held in inoperative position by an electromagnet 26, Whose circuit is controlled by the lever 13. When using an electric motor for the Winding-drum, the magnet 26 can be conveniently included in the circuit of the motor.

I claim herein as my invention 1. A hoistingmechanism for blast-furnaces having in combination a skipway, aconstantspeed motor, a car movable along the skip'Way, and means for moving said car operated by said motor and having a slower speed as the oar approaches the ends of its travel than between intermediate points, substantially as set forth.

2. Ahoisting mechanism for blast-furnaces having in combination a skipway, a car movable along the skipway, a drum having Winding-surfaces differing in diameter and graduated Winding surfaces intermediate of the other surfaces, and constant-speed motor for driving said drum, substantially as set forth.

3. A hoisting mechanism for blast-furnaces having in combination a skipway, a car movable along the skipway, means for moving said car and automatic means for stopping the car-shifting mechanism and for preventing the operation of such shifting mechanism in the same direction Without a prior operation in a reverse direction, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

HARRY HEFFRIN.

Witnesses:

F. E. GAITHER, FRED KIROHNER. 

